APDM to boycott elections

ISLAMABAD, Nov. 24 (Xinhua) -- A major opposition alliance in Pakistan Saturday decided it would boycott parliamentary elections if the constitution and sacked judges were not restored in four days.
At a meeting held here on Saturday, the All Parties Democratic Movement (APDM) also demanded withdrawal of the Provisional Constitutional Order (PCO) and restrictions on media in four days, according to the private NNI news agency.

(We welcome this decision by the APDM. One hopes the PPP and other parties will follow suit. These sham elections cannot be legitimized by participating in them. We encourage everyone to contact leaders from the political parties (especially the PPP) and relay to them this concern.)

the tide continues to turn..

What are we fighting for?

Battleground High Court: hundreds upon hundreds of lawyers, young and old, men and women are dragged by their foreheads into dark and narrow police vans and no one knows where they are being taken. Court property is smashed, innocents are beaten up. On November the fifth, a false hope which had long bred inaction is killed, a nation is shocked to its senses. Someone up in the echelons of power is counting upon our silence but makes a fatal mistake and drags into the fight a force that should have been there all along: the students. Perhaps by another mistake, the students are allowed to leave battleground High Court.

We have been asked if we were there to observe as the country’s institutional foundations were set ablaze. Somehow, people manage to be surprised when we tell them that we were there to join the fight – the fight that lawyers and other civil society groups were, and still are, putting up for constitutional governance in Pakistan. More than two weeks down the lane, we are still fighting. We have rallied and protested, spoken and assembled countless times and in countless places. We have reached out to the halls of power, inside and outside this country. Above, all we are reaching out to the people. Let there be no mistake: we are not here to quit. No ruler should even count on our silence again. We cannot stay out of it any more because the nation has called. We will overthrow absolutist and arbitrary government and we will stay to safeguard democracy once we usher it in.

We do not fight at the behest of any political party or any political figure. We fight, just like the lawyers, as an independent, peaceful and organized group of citizens – the students. Our objectives are: the restoration of the constitution and the judiciary to what they were before November 3; release of martial law prisoners; revocation of curbs on the media; and revival of representative government by free and fair elections. These are rights that we are entitled to as humans and citizens. If we are denied these, we will not wait and observe, because half a century of waiting and observing by us and our parents has landed us nowhere. We will not beg for a ruler’s mercy because we, the people, are above that. We must fight until we get them. It is true that the re-emergence of students in politics is a complex phenomenon. But the bottom-line is that simple.

In this fight, we refuse to use or condone violence. Violence is the oppressors’ weapon; we shall win the hearts and minds. We stand on a higher moral ground and ultimately the moral force of our struggle will melt all that confronts it. We know who it is that we are up against. But there is no power on God’s earth greater than the power of the people, if they stand together.

As oppressors quiver, our loved ones’ hearts also quake. But in their heart of hearts they, and the whole nation, are proud of us. They know that the time has come for the youth to inherit the earth with all its bounties and all its struggles. We strive for constitutional and representative governance because it is worth our while and because we are convinced that somewhere, somehow, victory is just around the corner.

- Student Action Comittee at LUMS

LUMS faculty condemns arrest of PU faculty members

Appeal by teachers of the Lahore University of Management Sciences against the Intimidation and Harassment of faculty members of Punjab University.

23 November 2007

As a continuation of the attack on all civil institutions, and in line with Extra-Constitutional Rule, Gen. Musharraf and the interim Government of Punjab have instituted sedition charges against 14 members of the academic staff of Punjab University.

The FIR against them, under sections 124-A, 188, 143/149 and 16-MPO, was registered at the Muslim Town Police station. They have been charged with sedition and provoking the masses against the government for its action of imposing emergency and promulgating the PCO. The FIR was registered after the above teachers had taken part in demonstrations against the suspension of the constitution, the promulgation of emergency and for the restoration of the constitution and the judiciary. These were peaceful protests held inside the campus.

The academic staff of Punjab University is continuing its protest against the government and the Chancellor of the university and is demanding the withdrawal of FIRs against all 14 members of faculty.

The undersigned faculty members of the Lahore University of Management Sciences condemn the attempt, through harassment and intimidation, to silence voices of reason whose only fault is their desire to restore democracy and the rule of law in Pakistan. We also condemn extra Constitutional Rule that suspends academia’s and the wider citizenries’ constitutional rights of freedom of assembly and association.

We demand the withdrawal of the charges against the faculty members of Punjab University. We express solidarity with our colleagues at Punjab University and all citizens engaged in the just struggle to end the state of emergency, restore the constitution and the rule of law, the lifting of the ban on the press and the restoration of the Supreme Court and the Judiciary.

Signatories to appeal:

Syed Aun Abbas
Asad Abidi
Nasir Afghan
Khurram Afridi
Shazia Afzal
Zeeshan Ahmed
Asad Alam
Syed Mubashir Ali
Syed Zahid Ali
Naveed Arshad
Hassan Azad
Sadaf Aziz
Shahab Baqai
Faisal Bari
Mohammad Basharullah
Faqir Bhatti
Shaukat Brah
Abid Burki
Aslam Butt
Ali Cheema
Saeed Ghazi
Syed Nomanul Haq
Ehsan ul Haque
Omair Haroon
Syed Zahoor Hassan
Faheem Hussain
Turab Hussain
Wasiq Hussain
Jahangir Ikram
M. Ashraf Iqbal
Faheem ul Islam
Tariq M. Jadoon
Zaeem Jafri
Asim Karim
Furrukh Khan
Jamshed H. Khan
Maryam Khan
Jawwad S. Khawaja
Miguel Loureiro
Shahid Masud
Shandana Mohmand
Khalid Mir
Nabil Mustafa
Shehreen Najam
M. Farooq Naseer
Anjum Nasim
Roger Normand
Manasa Patnam
Taimur Rahman
Rasul Baksh Rais
Hassna Ramay
Khalid Rasheed
Imran Rashid
Reehana Raza
Masood H. Shah
Sultan Sial
Osama Siddique
Sarah Zaidi
Tasneem Zehra
Nouman Zubair

Witness account of the arrest of Advocate Athar Minallah

21st November 2007

Athar Minallah was arrested on the 21^st of Nov. 2007 at approx. 1.30pm .He had been accompanying Retd. Justice Wajiuddin Ahmad the whole of that morning. After the arrival of the judge from Karachi Athar took him to the District courts of Islamabad in the F-8 sector where the Hon . Retd. Judge delivered a speech to the lawyers.While still at the dist. Courts ,someone conveyed a message that the Chief Justice, Justice Iftikhar Mohd Chaudhry had left his house and was trying to go to the Supreme Court, but was being prevented by the police.That very day a govt. spokesperson had announced in the newspapers that the judges "WERE NOT DETAINED '' .It was due to this news that the Chief Justice and Justice Bhagwandas decided to go to the SC.

When Justice Wajiuddin and an entourage of lawyers arrived at the scene the place was crawling with police carrying batons and shields and wearing helmets.When Jus. Wajiuddin wanted to go and visit the CJ, he was denied access to the road leading to the detained judges houses , and when he demanded an explanation as to why he being prevented ,the reply was "HOW COULD HE BE ALLOWED TO GO TO THE SUPREME COURT.There were some clashes between the police and the lawyers ,and a lot of loud and angry slogans were being chanted After the chaos died down, Athar and Justice Wajiuddin headed towards the Islamabad Club, where they were to meet a group of foreign media persons.

They had not gone very far when 2 police mobile vans forced them to stop, one of them in front and the other behind.Around six or seven PLAINCLOTHES INTELLIGENCE persons got out of the vans and walked towards the car.They opened the door on Athar's side and started pulling him out of the car, saying that they had a WARRANT for his arrest.Jus Waji called out to them to stop pulling and to show them the document.The men DRAGGED Athar out of the car and took him to their vehicle and SHOVED him inside.These details were given by Retd. Jus. Waji himself. He was very shaken and extremely upset . He made his way to the club and informed the journalists about what had happened. From there he went to the Dist. Courts in Rawalpindi and addressed the lawyers , informing them of the incident.Then he addressed a huge gathering of people from all walks of life and narrated the same again at a seminar held in the Holiday Inn, Islamabad.

In the mean time I was informed by my driver , who had been driving their car, that both of them had been arrested. I immediately started calling all the journalists whose numbers I had in my mobile phone. Since the arrest was made near the Marriot hotel ,the Secretariat Police Station would be the right one. I went there at approx 2pm with some friends but the place had a deserted look.The duty officer said he had no knowledge of the incident and neither could he help us.

ATHAR INFORMED ME IN MY MEETING WITH HIM TODAY AT ADIALA JAIL THAT WHEN WE WENT TO THE POLICE STATION LOOKING FOR HIM , HE COULD HEAR OUR VOICES SINCE HE WAS IN A ROOM NEXT DOOR AND HAD BEEN THREATENED TO KEEP QUIET. THE MOMENT WE LEFT HE WAS BUNDLED INTO A PRIVATE CAR WHICH SPED TOWARDS PINDI. ATHAR KEPT ASKING WHERE THEY WERE TAKING HIM BUT THERE WAS NO REPLY, HE WAS TAKEN TO THE SIHALA POLICE STATION AND FORCED TO WAIT FOR HOURS.ATHAR KEPT ASKING THEM WHERE THEY WOULD BE TAKING HIM AND THEY KEPT SAYING THEY WERE AWAITING ORDERS.HE WAS KEPT THERE TILL APROX 6PM AND THEN TAKEN TO ADIALA JAIL.

In the mean time I had been going to the Police Stations all over Islamabad trying to find him but we had no luck. I started getting very worried and my biggest fear was that since plainclothes men had arrested him they might take him to some unknown destination. At approx 4pm I decided to attend the seminar which was being held in the Holiday Inn. I was desperate and wanted to meet Retd.Justice Wajiuddin regarding some advice as to the next step. It was there that I received a phonecall from a reliable source that Athar was being shifted to Adiala.

I went the next day to meet Athar but after waiting outside the prison for 4 hrs I was informed that I needed the permission of the Home Secy.The next day I was able to get permission .

Inside the prison I followed a policeman through several corridors and several locked gates till we got to the room where I was to meet him. There were policemen constantly sitting in the room with us .Athar looked fine but he said that those few hours of urcertainty had been very taxing on his nerves , not to mention my agony. He is in a cell with other prisoners and they sleep on the floor. Matresses , pillows or quilts are not allowed .We were told that the max capacity of the prison was 2000 wheres the number of prisoners at the moment 6000.

My heart goes out to the families of those who are missing, without any charge. For the wives of thousands of lawyers who are arrested after November 3. Unfortunatey we are living in the stone age right now.There are no courts, no judges, no constitution, no law, no fundamental rights. The custodians of law and order have their guns pointed towards the people they are paid to protect.We are cursed with the most despicable dictatorship, the army is busy wiping out their own people, the Chief Justice and judges of the SC are locked in their houses with locks and chains on the gates, the President says FAIR AND FREE ELECTIONS will be held ACCORDING TO THE CONSTITUTION.The prisons are bursting at their seams with people who have stood up for the independence of the judiciary and the corridors of power are also bursting with the most amazing collection of spineless people one could ever imagine.